As Brian said, the closest place is the Music Row area which is close to downtown Nashville. There are several studios, record labels, cafes, restaurants, and boutiques. The area is also ungoing a lot of renovations with new places to eat, shop, and just hang out in.

There are several places to live in the music row area depending on what you are looking for. There are several condo/townhomes, renovated historic homes, and rentals in the area.

In regards to existing homes (no new construction) they are averaging around $188.00 P/SQFT with an average of about 2,600 square feet.

When looking at Townhomes, there a lot of new developments and existing properties. The new developments, such as Bristol on Broadway, The xisting townhomes and condos are averaging about $220 P/SQFT with an average of around 750 SQFT. The majority of those are 1 bedroom, 1 bath units built in the mid to late 1900's. The newer developments such as The Bristol West End, 1101 Eighteenth, Adelicia, and the Enclave, as well as a few others. They were built in the early 2000's to the present. They range from 1-3 bedrooms, and 1 1/2 baths. The majority are 1 & 2 bedrooms though. They average around $290 P/SQFT with an average of around 865 square feet.

When looking at the rental market, there are several places. Many of the older homes in the Music Row area are for rent, apartment buildings, and new and old townhomes/condos. The rents range from the low 1,000's on up to around 3,000 for the newer developments and larger proeprties.

This area is great for nite-life, dining, and general entertainment. There are two college campuses nearby, Vanderbilt University and Belmont University. Vanderbilt is a lot larger than Belmont and both campuses are near Music Row.

If you're looking for open mic nites, there are a lot of those. However, they are somewhat spread out throughout the Nashville area. Here are a few:
23RD PSALM CAFÉ: 2203 Buena Vista Pk., (615) 259-2323 (about 6-7 miles from Music Row)
Open Mic hosted by Ben Houston: Saturday, 7 pm, Sign-up at 6:30 pm.

BAILEY'S PUB & GRILLE: 408 Broadway, (615) 254-5452 (about 2 miles from Music Row)
Writer's Night Open Mic hosted by Mary Sue Englund: Tuesday, 9 pm - 1 am.

BLUEBIRD CAFE: 4104 Hillsboro Road, (615) 383-1461 (about 3-4 miles from Music Row)
Open Mic hosted by Barbara Cloyd: Monday, 6 - 9 pm, Sign-up at 5:30 pm.

THE DOUGLAS CORNER CAFÉ: 2106-A 8th Ave. S., (615) 298-1688 (about 1-2 miles from Music Row)
Open Mic Writer's Night hosted by Rick Campbell: Tuesday, 8 pm. Call (615) 292-2530 on Tuesday between 2 - 6 pm to sign-up.

Hope this info helps!

Here's one more link:

http://www.city-data.com/city/Nashville-Davidson-Tennessee.html

Jolie: Here are some links that I hope will help you. The first one is a link for homes around the Vandy/Hillsboro area and this should give you an idea about pricing. The second link is for demographic information for Nashville.

http://listings.realtracs.com/Buyer4.aspx?EmailID=15755091

http://www.nashvilleareainfo.com

Nashville has two major pockets of music industry. One is on the Music Row just outside of the downtown corridor. If you were to live in a prime location near there, the newest development is called "Rhythm" (http://www.rhythmnashville.com/). It's across the street from BMI and ASCAP. It's literally connected to several restaurants including Tin Roof, Otter's, an Irish restaurant, a Greek restaurant, Caffeine (coffee shop). Many of the record labels are within a 5 minute walk from there. Open mic-wise, there are several venues near there. During Tin Pan South, the Best Western across the street has some great stuff. They often have open mic nights there, too. The Castle Door is another venue across the street. Now, if you are looking for other options that are near, there's an apartment complex that was just converted in the neighborhood where units begin in the low $100s. If a house is more your style, you can buy a new construction historic replica currently underway on a street called Sigler (right beside BMI again) for $385K for 2000 square feet. Other walkabout condo developments there are Adelicia, The Glen, ICON, Terrazo and Little 16. Many of the homes, however, in the immediate Music Row area are rental properties for Vanderbit students. That campus is adjacent to Music Row.

Safety issues are mixed in the Music Row area. Luckily, with the Gulch's updates and renovations, alot of the muck has been moved out. You will see some ickiness near 8th and 9th, but nothing crazy bad.

The second area is spread throughout Brentwood/Maryland Farms and Cool Springs. Nothing is walkable there however.